Following the nearly $700 million worldwide gross of 2011’s “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol”, Tom Cruise has done the wise thing and decided to accept another mission from Paramount. After all, he’s no dummy, especially when just a few years ago studios were shying away from the Cruister, industry insiders all but writing the obituary for the man’s A-list career.

Oh, how times have changed. Now Cruise is fronting one big-budget studio film after another, and he’ll be netting a big payday for “Mission Impossible 5″. Of course, we don’t know how much he’s going to pocket, but let’s face it, it’s gonna be big. He won’t only star, but also produce the fifth entry. What does producing mean? I have no idea, but I assume it comes with an extra paycheck.

As for who will direct Cruise in part 5, that’s a tad murky. Cruise’s “Jack Reacher” director and frequent collaborator (not to mention go-to script doctor) Christopher McQuarrie is said to have the inside track, but that could be a tad problematic especially with almost simultaneous news that McQuarrie has already signed up to write and direct a remake of the military thriller “Ice Station Zebra” for Warner Bros.

Based on the 1968 film starring Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan and Jim Brown, the original “Ice Station Zebra” (based on the novel by Alistair MacLean) follows the crew of an American nuclear submarine as they race to save a British meteorological team trapped on the polar ice cap, only to find themselves smack dab in the middle of a raging Cold War.

So if McQuarrie is busy with “Ice Station Zebra”, who will write and direct “Mission Impossible 5″? Well, there’s nothing to say he couldn’t do both, as long as he puts one on the back burner. The problem, of course, is that “Zebra” will be for Warner Bros. while “Mission Impossible” is a Paramount film, and neither studio might feel all that accommodating to a rival.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind if McQuarrie and Cruise put both of these movies on the back burner and do “Jack Reacher 2″ instead. But then again, I’m a huge Lee Child fan, so maybe I’m being a tad bias.